CHENNAI: From a heirloom moong dal recipe to her specialty coconut barfi, Saroj Swaroop Jain talks about the traditional importance of preparing and sharing sweets during festivals Diwali celebrations is incomplete without a mouthful of barfis and jamuns. Keeping up with the age-old tradition, Saroj Swaroop Jain begins preparing sweets and savouries on an auspicious day. She meticulously packs and distributes them to her neighbours and relatives on the special day. Her coconut barfi is famous among her family members.
“It’s quite surprising that I’ve learned to prepare so many delicacies considering I never cooked before marriage. I have nine siblings and my mother taught each one of us the core values of hygiene in kitchen. We used to do tiny tasks like cleaning vessels, chopping vegetables and kneading dough. My roti was never soft and it would always be square in shape,” recollects Saroj, who has been cooking for almost 30 years now. The city-based home maker was born in Raipur. She moved to Chennai as a five-year-old and was raised here. Her mother’s Misipuri (a savoury) and her father’s Baingan (brinjal) sabji were her favourite dishes as a child.
Saroj started cooking on a full-fledged basis after her marriage in 1988. She knows to prepare about 10 sweets. Malpua, besan barfi, kaju katli, badam katli, moong dal halwa and dahitra are a few of her specialties. Saroj goes an extra mile to get the right consistency when it comes to sugar or jaggery syrup. Plating and presentation are her strengths. One can bet that a box of sweets from a shop and the one from her kitchen would look similar even in terms of minute detailing like the vark on kaju katli. “Preparing sweets is a tricky business. It involves many steps like preparing the syrup, kneading dough to perfection, frying it in the right heat to get the colour and plating it without disturbing the original shape. Lack of concentration might not lead to perfection. The sweets I prepare are traditional to the Jain customs, and these are not commonly made in South India. If a particular item requires soaking and drying for a few hours the previous night, then it has to be followed. Texture and colour add on to the richness. Our heirloom recipe is moong dal halwa,” Saroj tells us.
The sweet on your plate is a collective effort of neighbours who come together, share ideas and prepare. Most of Saroj’s relatives live in the northern part of India. “For this Diwali, I’m preparing Khaja (a savoury) in white and yellow (turmeric powder for the colour). We add ingredients like omum to it as it helps with digestion. I will make saakli and dahitra for sweets. The syrups are usually made on an auspicious day, and the basic preparation begins a week before Diwali,” says Saroj, who is a huge fan of south Indian cuisine.
